The ability for healthcare users to interact with a hospital information system while at the point of care (POC), e.g., at a patient's bedside, is recognized as having the potential to dramatically reduce the incidence of certain medical complications.
Specifically, studies estimate that significant benefits are likely to arise through the provision of “computerized physician order entry” (CPOE), which consists of allowing healthcare users (e.g., doctors, nurses, orderlies, etc.) to place orders (e.g., prescription, blood test, clean towel, etc.) via a bedside location in the vicinity of the patient being treated. This simple yet elusive paradigm, dubbed “CPOE at the POC”, has the potential effect of reducing human error due to temporary memory loss and mistakes in transcription. In addition, when coupled with real-time decision information support tools (DIST), CPOE provides healthcare users with an additional level of assurance that their diagnosis or treatment plan falls within generally accepted parameters.
For background reading on the CPOE-at-the-POC paradigm and its predicted impact, the reader is referred to the following references, hereby incorporated by reference herein:                Clinical Decision Support—Finding the Right Path, by J. Metzger, D. Stablein and F. Turisco, First Consulting Group, September 2002        Computerized Physician Order Entry: Costs, Benefits and Challenges—A case Study Approach, by First Consulting Group for Advancing Health in America and the Federation of American Hospitals, January 2003        Leapfrog Patient Safety Standards—The Potential Benefits of Universal Adoption, by J. D. Birkmeyer, The Leapfrog Group, November 2000        Computerized Physician Order Entry: A Look at the Vendor Marketplace and Getting Started, by J. Metzger, F. Turisco, First Consulting Group, December 2001        A Primer on Physician Order Entry, by First Consulting Group for the California Healthcare Foundation, Oakland, Calif., September 2000        
Conventionally, hospitals have attempted to deploy CPOE at the POC by providing multiple POC access points throughout the hospital in communication with the core hospital network. In some implementations, the POC access points are wired directly to the core hospital network. However, it is apparent that the addition of hundreds of high-speed wiring connections throughout an existing hospital is a highly intrusive exercise, causing the shutting down of rooms or entire wards until installation is complete, due to the need to open unclean areas such as ceilings, wall interiors, etc. to place and pull new data network cables.
Clearly, there remains a need in the healthcare industry for implementing a CPOE-at-the-POC solution in a relatively non-disruptive manner.